The Bulls now enter the bye week at 2-4 (0-2). While losing to FSU was expected by many, the loss to Temple was hard to stomach, just like the loss to Ball State was. The team continues to struggle and many people are wanting to know why. Why is this team continuing to fall apart and fail to live up to the expectations once again.
To start with, I have to refer back to my article about the state of USF football team and program and why as fans we are so angry. I highlighted failure on the field, coaching mistakes, and overall just wanting our team to do well. The team continues to make the same mistakes each week, repeating the mistakes that we saw game after game under the Leavitt era. However, as bad as the mistakes are in each game and the lack of motivation are bad, it is the bad coaching that is the most alarming thing to watch.
The coaching on and off the field has been hard to watch. Starting with Coach Cosh, the defense is the only unit the the nation that has yet to record an interception and the failures on third down are just bad. The offense has never fully adjusted to Daniels and Coach Fitch, who has gotten just a little bit better, is still not calling games to the highest level. But the real issue is Holtz. Holtz, as nice as he is, just doesn't seem to have that fire to rally and motivate the team. Holtz says all the right things, praises other teams, says he is always happy with the competitive effort the team shows, but that fire is just not there. It is all from the couch when I say these things, but Holtz doesn't seem like the best motivator. It doesn't require a coach yelling and screaming at their players, but to show some accountability and anger seems to help. While we are angry and want change to happen, it's not coming any time soon.
Face the facts. Holtz signed a contract extension in the off-season, keeping him in Tampa till 2017. He has a $2.5 million buyout in his contract, keeping him safe from other schools, but also locking him up here for the foreseeable future. USF also have AD Doug Woolard a contract extension, the same guy that inked Holtz, keeping him around for the next few years. Holtz signed defensive coordinator Chris Cosh in the offseason (replacing Mark Snyder) to a two-year deal which pays him $325,000 per year. Financially, USF is tied to these figures. Buying out Holtz’s contract or firing someone in the middle of the year just can’t be done, especially with an athletic budget that is already in the hole. Money is not falling off the trees around the campus, so just firing people won’t happen. As much as fans want the athletic office to cut someone and tell them to pack their bags, it is just not happening. This has led many fans to vent their anger.
A lot of fans have turned to the internet to vent their anger. Parody accounts, websites, and social media are popping up everywhere with fans are lashing out and showing their true emotions. While as a fan we all have passion and always want to express our thoughts, fans need to do it in a civil manner. Going on facebook and twitter and cursing and threatening the players is not the answer and down-right pathetic. Even sending hostile tweets to the coaching staff is sad, it’s not the answer, and is pretty classless. We are all angry, but looking like a fool in venting your anger is not helping the matter. Besides, it won’t change anything.
Should fans be angry at Holtz getting an extension? Yes, they should but they should also be angry at Woolard for inking him to the deal. After going 5-7 (1-6) last season, there was really no merit for him getting the deal aside from creating stability with the coaching staff or the internet rumors of other coaching positions opening for him. Signing Holtz was not a smart move and now we can see the results. The team is now stuck with average or below average coaching and with the current finances, nothing can be done.
So while we are all angry, understand that there is not much that can be done and going insane isn’t going to do any good. We can email, call, send letters, but it would take someone with power in that athletic office with the funds behind them to make it happen, we don't have that.
So here we are fans. We are part of a program that has laid its own egg. We are an average program with an administration that is set to be average. They seem to be content with the mediocrity that now surrounds us. Are we to blame for hyping and the unreal expectations we have for this team, a bit. We all want a winner, but that is part of the course. Holtz has said he understands the hype and the yearning for greatness, it's part of the business. Yet, they do nothing. There is no energy, no anger for the program to make a move, so as fans we are stuck. We will have to deal with what the program has become. We will hope and pray change happens, that these coaches get it together, and they find a way to get it done, but losing 10 out of the last 11 Big East games shows they are still a long way from doing that.
One last thing, as angry as we are, please do not attack the players. We are passionate. but attacking the young men that play the game is a joke. Vent your anger, but keep it away from the players, just be smart. We are always critics of the athletes and what they do on the field, there is nothing wrong with that. But when you take it away from the field and attack players on social media, it's sad and not right We are all angry and so are the players, they know they are losing, they don't need "fans" cursing them out. So if we can't support the coaches, we should and must rally to the players, support them and encourage them to do their best.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment